Head Coach: Kenni Burns is entering his 2nd season as the head coach of the Golden Flashes with a 1-11 record. It was very much a reset year in every way so this season is the first time we’ll get a real indication of what his Golden Flashes squad will look like.
Program Outlook: Kent State is a challenging job. There’s no history of winning and they’re in the unique position of being one of the rare programs that invest more heavily in basketball compared to football. As a result any coach will always face a challenge here but that’s not to say they’ve been completely without success. It’s hard to believe but back in 2012 Kent State had Northern Illinois on the ropes in 2nd OT with an ORANGE BOWL birth on the line, it’s hard to believe now, Kent State in the Orange bowl but it almost happened. Then most recently Sean Lewis managed to produce winning seasons despite the challenges they face.
How does the 2024 Roster look?: Kent State’s roster is a work in progress. They suffered the worst impact of the portal to date last offseason when Sean Lewis left, basically every left and scattered elsewhere. The first step will be to figure out their QB, the Golden Flashes tried a few QBs last season and they struggled to complete passes. Tommy Ulatowski is the clubhouse favorite to win the job. Kent State returns a very underrated group of receivers and they brought in a host of talented transfers to really make this group a strength. The Golden Flashes started very young on the offensive line and took their lumps last season but now the positive is all 5 starters are back. There’s hope they improve up front and that creates more room for the backs to run. Kent State’s defense struggled at just about everything. The good news is there’s a lot of starters back in most areas. The defensive line took a massive hit this spring when their star CJ West left for Indiana. Linebacker Nicholas Giacolone is a good player to build around and overall this unit might be the strength of the defense. The secondary will be relying on their portal pickups to make an immediate impact.
Screenshot from fbschedules.com1
2024 Schedule Thoughts: Here’s another challenge that Kent State is up against, due to their low football budget they are a common opponent that bigger schools pay to host. Kent State is a popular option among the Big Ten and SEC because those programs always look for a risk free non-conference game. The result for Kent State is what the Sickos Committee has properly dubbed the annual “Ride to Hell Tour.” This year’s involves trips to Pitt, Penn State and Tennessee. This isn’t the worst one compared to some, these programs are closed at least, Pitt in particular is a regional game. They do play a St Francis team that isn’t expected to be a huge challenge. The good news for Kent State is their pod in the MAC is with Akron and Buffalo who are two other programs that historically are typically better at basketball than football so there’s toss ups built in each time. They draw a couple other games against Eastern Michigan and Ball State that might be winnable under the right scenario and they avoid Toledo which helps.
Vegas Projection: Kent State’s win total is set at a paltry 2.5, but the odds are geared toward the over at least. This is one of the most pessimistic outlooks Vegas has.
2024 Best Case: Kent State opens the season hot as they grab an early lead on Pitt and battle hard with the Panthers before losing late. They do grab a win over St Francis before having to deal with both Tennessee and Penn State the quick starting Golden Flashes do manage to lead long enough in both games for “stop the count!” Tweets to reign in before they lose. They aren’t discouraged from their annual “ride to hell tour” though. They rebound immediately taking down Eastern Michigan, Ball State and even upsetting Bowling Green on the road. That’s all they needed, Kent State does battle through a tough stretch but closes the season beating Akron and Buffalo to win 6 games and reach a bowl game. Akron fails to win a game which makes things even better. Kent State closes out the season strong by grabbing only their 2nd bowl win in program history. It appears finally this program is building momentum.
2024 Worst Case: This could get worse before it gets better. Kent State quickly is run off the field by the new Pitt Air-raid as they fall behind 21-0 quickly. It gets even worse when the Golden Flashes can’t quit making mistakes and are beaten by the Red Flash (Golden Flashes vs Red Flash what a matchup.) You know where this is going from here, Kent State finishes the season winless meanwhile Akron makes a surprise run to winning a bowl game. Basketball season comes around and isn’t much better.
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